Grammarist is a professional online English grammar dictionary, that provides a variety of grammatical tools, rules and tips in order to improve your grammar and to help you distinguish between commonly misspelled words.

Memoranda vs. memorandums: There’s nothing wrong with the English plural, but the Latin plural is conventional and more common.

Methodology: Where it doesn’t mean either a set of working methods or the study of working methods, methodology usually bears replacement with the shorter and less pretentious-sounding method.

Micro- vs. macro-: Micro-: small. Macro-: large.

Advertisement

Midafternoon, midday, midmorning: one word, like the unquestioned midnight.

Militate vs. mitigate: Militate, usually followed by against, means to influence or to bring about a change. Mitigate means to alleviate or to become milder, and it does not take any helper words such as against.

Millennia vs. millenniums: The Latin plural, millennia, is more common, but the English plural, millenniums, is perfectly good if you like it better.

Minks vs minx: Minks is the plural of mink, which refers to a group of weasel-like carnivores that are native to North America and are known for their lustrous fur. A minx is a flirtatious, impudent, or promiscuous young woman. There is sexism embedded in the word, so 21st-century writers should use it carefully if at all.

Mishmash: The noun meaning a collection of varied things is mishmash—one word.

Moat vs. mote: A moat is a ditch around a fortified town or castle. A mote is a small grain or particle of something.

Monied vs. moneyed: There is no difference between them. Both are used throughout the English-speaking world.

Moose: The plural of moose is usually moose (i.e., it’s unchanged). Mooses appears occasionally, but some readers might consider it incorrect.

Moribund: approaching death or nearly obsolete. Not related to morbid.

Mouthful: The plural is mouthfuls. Five mouths full denotes five different mouths that are full.

More power to you: similar to good for you. Like that phrase, more power to you is sometimes facetious or dismissive. It dates from the early 20th century, but its exact origins are mysterious.

Must needs: Needs was once an adverb meaning of necessity or unavoidably. So when you encounter the awkward and archaic-sounding phrase must needs, think of it as meaning must of necessity or just must (as must already denotes necessity).